


You're Not Alone

by csmickey



Category: House of Anubis
Genre: F/M, fabian's in it for like a second, he doesn't even speak
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 09:17:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4342859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/csmickey/pseuds/csmickey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Hey, um… Could you help me with something?” She asked nervously. Jerome was probably the last person she wanted to be asking for help. He sat up and rested his arms on his knees, looking Mara over.</p><p>“You need my help?” He questioned, bringing his hand up and resting his chin on it. “Since when has Mara Jaffray ever needed my help with something?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're Not Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [You're Not Alone](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/128741) by warblerette1125. 



> I'm very sorry if any of the characters seem out of character. I've not written for House of Anubis in years. This is a remake of one of my old HoA fanfictions, which was terribly written because I was like, 12. Probably younger. I hope this one is better than that one, and that people can enjoy reading it.
> 
> Any mistakes made are my own, and I welcome you to point them out and I'll try and fix them!

Jerome wandered down the path to Anubis, the breeze blowing through his hair as he listened to his friend talk his ear off. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he was saying. He’d learned to tune Alfie out over the years, only picking up the important details that would make him seem like a better friend. He just vaguely nodded his head until he heard him say, “Anyways, you’re totally into Mara, so why bother setting you up with this girl, right?”

“Mara? No, no. That is the opposite of the truth. Where in the world did you get that from?” Jerome got defensive immediately, running a hand through his hair. He'd never thought of Jaffray that way.

"I'm just saying, you two have been talking a lot more than usual, and don’t think I’ve not noticed the muttering in your sleep. It’s woken me up multiple times, not to mention the fact that it’s just plain creepy.” Alfie shook his head, as they were approaching Anubis. _Muttering in his sleep?_ He hadn’t known he’d been doing that. He could admit - that was creepy.

“I’ve got no clue what you’re talking about.” Jerome stated, and, for once, he wasn’t completely lying. “Muttering in my sleep? I am completely silent, one hundred percent of the time. Maybe you really are insane, like everyone else says.”

“Well, you wanna know what I think?” They’ve stopped on the steps, and Jerome sighs and rolls his eyes, before looking at Alfie expectantly.

“What, Alfie? What do you think?” He leaned against the door, raising his eyebrow at his friend.

"I think... that she’s some weird alien, and she’s slowly drawing you towards her, so she can _eat you_.” Alfie grinned, resembling some sort of maniac as Jerome rolled his eyes and opened the door, walking to the house.

“Wow, you really are insane. Mara’s not an alien. And no, I don’t have a thing for her.”

They walked into the living room, Jerome plopping down on the couch. Alfie went to follow but before he could, Nina came into the room and caught his attention.

“Alfie, there you are! Amber and I have been looking for you, we have, um… Homework questions.” Nina glanced at Jerome, who appeared to have looked away before mouthing ‘Sibuna’ to Alfie.

“You’re asking Alfie for help with your homework? You might as well just fail now, Nina.” Jerome looked back towards them, shaking his head.

"Just small stuff. Alfie, um… He understood it better than anyone else in class. So, we figured he could help us.” Nina covered up her panic at Jerome calling her out, and tried to usher Alfie out of the room as quick as possible.

“Okay, fine, be all secretive. I know you’re lying!” Jerome yelled after them, as they disappeared up the stairs. He shifted his position so that he was laying across the couch, and he closed his eyes. He was alone now, and honestly, he liked it better that way. He loved Alfie, he really did, but he got a headache from excess exposure to his nonsense. However, the silence didn’t last long. He heard footsteps coming into the room. He peeked open one of his eyes to see Mara standing not far away.

“Hey, um… Could you help me with something?” She asked nervously. Jerome was probably the last person she wanted to be asking for help. He sat up and rested his arms on his knees, looking Mara over.

“You need my help?” He questioned, bringing his hand up and resting his chin on it. “Since when has Mara Jaffray ever needed my help with something?”

"Well, I wouldn’t. Usually. But I need help…” She broke off the sentence, mumbling something that Jerome couldn’t quite hear.

“I’m sorry? I don’t speak… that.” Jerome smirked, waving his hand around to indicate that he really hadn't understood whatever she'd said.

“I need help breaking the rules.” She still wasn't speaking completely clearly, but it was more understandable than before.

“Oh, dear. You’re turning to the dark side? You gonna join me and Alfie on our outrageous pranks?” Jerome made motions with hands to exaggerate what he was saying.

“Was that an offer?” Mara teased him, catching him by surprise because she was being surprisingly flirtatious. “But no. Seriously, I just… I heard this weird noise up in the attic, and it was probably just rats or something like that, but I feel like I should… y’know, make sure it’s not.”

“So… You need the attic key?” He made a face as he thought. “That one’s hard to get. It’s in Victor’s office. You’ve gotta be sneaky. Or just pick the lock.”

“So you’ll help me, then? Can you pick a lock?” She started heading towards the stairs, and Jerome was quick to hop up and follow.

“Depends. You got a hair pin?”

* * *

They were successfully in the attic and Jerome placed a thin book in between the door and the frame so that it wouldn’t close while they were in there. He noticed Mara had lost a lot of color in her face, and her breathing wasn’t exactly steady.

"You okay?” He questioned in a whisper, starting to worry if this was actually a good idea.

"Not really," She replied quietly, her voice cracking a little bit. She was definitely scared, but he didn’t think there would really be any danger in the attic. She was more scared of getting caught, he thought.

“Well, let’s go.” He muttered starting up the steps with Mara behind him. They were almost at the top when he heard the door snap shut and he froze where he was.

“Oh, god, please don’t tell me that’s what I think it was.” Mara turns around and runs back to the bottom of the steps. “Oh, no, no. This is why I don’t break the rules. It always ends badly when you break the rules. This was a bad idea, why did I think I had to investigate that damn noise? Why did _you_ agree to help me?”

"Hey, it’s okay. We’re okay.” He reached his hand into one of his pockets. “I’ve still got the hair pin!” His face quickly turns into one of panic as he feels in all of his other pockets.

“No. Please tell me you didn’t lose the hair pin.” Mara shakes her head and leans against the wall with her head in her hands.

“I appear to no longer have the hair pin.” He looked guiltily at Mara, before dropping down onto his hands and knees and pressing his eye against the gap at the bottom of the door, where he could clearly see the hair pin, just outside the door. He reached his hand through and the pin was just out of his reach. “Damn it… We’re um. We’re stuck.”

“Oh, god… This is why we’re not supposed to go in the attic! Rules are rules for a reason…” Mara trailed off, staring at the ground as the situation set it.

“Let’s just… Go look up there, see if we can find anything to pick the lock with?” He turned towards the stairs and started up them.

“Yes, maybe there will be a hair pin in the attic that, supposedly, nobody goes into.” Despite not wanting to go up into the attic, she followed him. It was better than being alone at the bottom of the stairs.

“Hey, it’s possible.” He started snooping around the attic, looking through the boxes stacked around the room. He stopped when he picked up a newspaper. “Hmm. Jaffray, c’mere.”

“What is it?” She asked as she stepped over clutter on the ground to come look at it.

“That’s Victor.” He says, pointing to a picture on the front of the newspaper. Mara just seems confused by it.

“So? He’s old, he’s probably been in a few newspapers. It’s not odd, Jerome.” She shook her head and started to head over to another box.

"It's not that he’s in a newspaper, it’s that the newspaper is dated 1922! Victor looks exactly the same. You’ve gotta admit that’s creepy. He’s not aged a day!” Jerome was obviously surprised by this, but Mara didn’t seem to care as much.

"Okay, yes, that’s creepy. But I’m honestly more focused on getting out of this attic, than Victor in a, _probably misdated_ , newspaper. They probably meant to type 1992, or something like that.” Mara started going through another box, looking for something small and pointy enough to pick the lock.

"So, you think we’ll actually get out of here?” He raised his eyebrows, teasing her about their fate.

“I think, if anything, Victor will notice we’re gone, or the other students will. Eventually, they’ll have to figure out we’re up here. Unfortunately, we’ll get in trouble, because this is _against the rules_. But we won’t be stuck up here anymore.” Mara kept digging through the boxes, occasionally picking up something to look at, but ultimately not finding anything to pick the lock. They’d fallen into a semi-comfortable silence when Jerome spoke again.

“Y’know, I don’t think I’d mind too much. I mean, if we were actually stuck up here forever.” Jerome was barely speaking, but in the quiet of the attic, it wasn’t hard to hear him.

“Jerome… Don’t say that.” Mara was surprised by the sudden honesty, but she wasn’t gonna ignore it. “Y’know, your life’s not too bad. You’re at a _great_ school, with great friends. Alfie practically worships you!” Jerome moved so that they were face to face, and that shift had made it so that their bodies were almost pressed together in the cramped clutter of the attic.

“Do you know anybody, besides Alfie, that legitimately likes me? Not because they’re scared of me, but genuinely, actually like spending time with me?” He looked in her eyes, and as she opened her mouth to speak, he got hopeful. When nothing came out, he sighed and turned away, picking up a doll from one of the boxes. “That’s what I thought.”

“Jerome, no…” Mara started, grabbing his arm and pulling him back to face her, making him drop the doll on the floor. There was a soft thud, and then it was silent. Just them looking at each other. Mara tried to say something, but for once in her life, she was speechless. She didn’t know what to say to make him feel better. She’d never thought of Jerome as vulnerable before, but he was as prone to loneliness as everyone else was. The longer they stayed like that, the more tension there was. Jerome started to lean forward, his breath caught in his throat. Before they knew it, their lips were crashing together and one of Jerome’s hands was on the back of her neck, the other resting on her back. They pulled back, breathless.

"You're not alone, Jerome, not as long as I’m here.”

"That was, um…” Jerome scratched the back of his head, looking down at his feet. “That was nice.”

“ _That was nice?_ I thought you were supposed to be smooth.” Mara laughed and leaned against a wall that was free of clutter, sliding down so she was sitting. Jerome followed and she leaned her head against his shoulder.

“I’ll have you know that I’m extremely smooth. Smoother than a smoothie.” Jerome let out a low chuckle and reached his arm around her.

“Oh, yes. That’s real smooth.” She stated sarcastically. “So, what’s gonna happen when we get out?”

“Don’t you mean ‘if’ we get out?”

"Oh, don’t be such a pessimist." She hit him lightly on the side.

"Oh, don’t be such an optimist." He mocked and elbowed her lightly, making them both laugh. Their joy was cut off quickly when they heard the attic door opening. “What’s that?”

“We should check. It might be Victor.” Mara nodded her head as Jerome stood up, offering her a hand, which she quickly accepted.

They rounded through the doorway and stared down the stairs to see Nina, Fabian and Alfie at the bottom of the stairs, and the door was still open. Nina made a yelping sound, looking up at them suddenly. “Jerome? Mara? What are you two doing up here? You should be glad we found you in here, and not Victor.”

"I thought I heard something, and so Jerome broke into the attic, which was dumb, and we got stuck. What are you doing here?” Mara answered, as they made their way down the stairs, but before the other three could respond Jerome stepped in.

“Hold on, no. You’re saying it was dumb? It was your idea! I was helping _you_!” He seemed offended, and it made Alfie laugh. Jerome glared at him, which made him immediately stifle the laughter. “But wait, seriously, what are you guys doing up here?”

“Um… homework?” Alfie said with a guilty expression.

* * *

**_A FEW DAYS LATER_ **

****

Alfie and Jerome were lounging around on their respective beds. Jerome had his phone out, flipping through some social media. Alfie was just trying to rest.

"Y’know, I was totally right.” Alfie says, out of nowhere.

“About what?” Jerome doesn’t look up from his phone, but he does acknowledge what he’d said.

“Mara’s totally an alien. She succeeded in drawing you closer to her, obviously. Watch out for the _eating_.”


End file.
